Panama Found North Korean Ship with Weapons Hidden in Sugar Containers,

Everybody missed the most interesting and possibly important part of the story. They litter Russia on April 12, with a stated destination of Havana.
They disappeared off satellite tracking, until they crossed the Panama Canal into the Caribbean. Three months is a long time if they went straight
from Russia to Cuba. What were they doing the rest of the time, anger why turn off their transponder.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Just to add a little more, it appears to be a Fan Song E, which is one of the newer versions of the radar. It can include electro optical guidance
for use in jamming conditions, as well as an Electronic Counter-Counter Measures (ECCM) mode. If it's an E, then it's a G band radar, with 1mw of
output, with a range of between 45 and 90 miles, depending on conditions and altitude of the target. All versions of the Fan Song can track 6 targets
simultaneously. The E has two additional antennas, for the ECCM mode.

The S-75 (NATO name SA-2 Guideline) was developed to counter high altitude overflights by US aircraft. Its first kill was an RB-57 Canberra over
China in 1959, while the aircraft was flying over 65,000 feet. It was hit by 3 missiles fired from the battery.

You mean to say that the SA-2
was used just as a decoy/shell to transport advanced system inside?

No, the SA-2 was used by multiple countries until recently. The system was updated as the threat and counters matured. It's still dangerous to large
aircraft, like the B-52, or transports, and the U-2, but it's far from a top of the line system.

Good find. OP! I just heard this on the radio on my way to work this morning.

I'm not surprised N. Korea is trying to get missile tech. They have to either figure out how to make them fly or start calling their missiles
'submarines' because they all seem to end up in the ocean.

This just shows how significant the Panama Canal is....can't wait to hear the spin.

Am I mistaken, or did the Panama Canal consortium recently sign over the kaboodle
to the PRChina? I don't think a recently acquired and widened channel (at great expense)
blown to sea level by one's next door neighbor would be taken too kindly... especially if
it's glowing for the next 75-120 years.

July 17, 2013 10:39 am
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that it sent missiles and other military equipment to North Korea aboard a ship that was seized by
Panamanian government authorities.

In a statement, the Cuban ministry said the ship, the Chong Chon Gang, and its 35-member crew were detained.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to inform that said vessel sailed from a Cuban port to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, mainly
loaded with 10,000 tons of sugar,” the statement said.

The military equipment included 240 metric tons of “obsolete defensive weapons,” including two anti-aircraft “complexes.”

The air defenses were descrsibed as “Volga,” the export version of the Soviet-era SA-2 surface-to-air missile systems, and the “Pechora,” the
expert version of the SA-3.

Nine missiles, two Mig-21 aircraft, and 15 motors for the jet were included “to be repaired and returned to Cuba,” the statement said.

“The agreements subscribed by Cuba in this field are supported by the need to maintain our defensive capacity in order to preserve national
sovereignty,” the statement said.

Maybe these obsolete weapons were a "test run" for something more powerful, like say a nuke... They see what type of security there is and they find
out if they can use the Panama Canal as a legitimate shipping lane moving forward... But who knows.. Maybe I'm connecting the dots all
wrong...

edit on 17-7-2013 by jhn7537 because: (no reason given)

I think Cuba is telling the truth. It looks like stuff sent for repairs.

Anybody who is capable of striking US with nukes is unlikely to do it this way.

This incident also shows US on the edge. Terror from North Korea is added to terror from Muslim countries.

The United States will not go down from a random nuke strike on a US city. Unites States will go down in an all-out bloody war.

I see the comments of posters here - all remind me of a waning empire.

I don't know that is fairly common and, or easy to figure out. Russia-N.K.- wherever else they trade-on there way to Cuba.

This probably isn't there first run either given the track record of the ship.

I am not surprised or alarmed by this except for the fact that they were stopped at the Canal. That kind of stuff happens there but it seems they
tried to get through without proper paperwork or paying the necessary fees/bribes to get trough and now they are being made an example of.

According to the ships logs, they were supposed to go Russia-Havana with no stop in between. Which is what makes it interesting. Why not just say
"Russia-N.K.-Havana" if they just went back home in between.

Yea that is a long period of time to be uncounted for but like I said it is a known smuggling ship and not unusual for them not to record there true
route or keep a separate log book much like truckers did when I drove. Not that I smuggled I just knew how to shave hours.

I spent a few months time at the canal and a lot passes through there you hear stories.

I thought I would post this here as well as in the thread it was posted in www.abovetopsecret.com... DPRK
demands the ship crew and all cargo be set free, UN now has the ball in there court, and the US is staying out of it due to Cuba relations. That is
the jest of the news article.

Anybody who is capable of striking US with nukes is unlikely to do it this way.

That's just it though...they aren't capable in the normal sense. According to intelligence analysts (and depending on which week it is, apparently),
NK isn't capable of weaponizing nukes for use in ICBMs at present. So, assuming that is correct (which I don't, but let's assume for a
moment).....

This is EXACTLY the way you'd do it. Smuggle a normal sized nuke in a civilian cargo ship. Back when the whole situation was heating up, this was
said time and time again, and now, it appears that there were good reasons for the assumption.

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